When we fall into the habit of daily routine, we lose the ability to look at the small details that fill us with life and not only in the poetic sense. If you think about it, the planet works 24/7 tirelessly to keep its guests alive and part of that work takes place within the water cycle. Clouds are part of that intricate everlasting cycle that provides us with water to survive. One might look at the sky and see cotton figures that seem to constantly change shape, but the reality is that clouds are made of cotton vapor. So if you’ve ever wondered how much a cloud weighs, their apparent lightness fades, we’re talking really big weights.
How much does a cloud weigh?
Let’s think of a cumulus cloud, which is the clouds with the most cottony appearance and cut edges. These stretch for at least 1 kilometer long, but since they are usually cubic in shape, then we could say that they are also 1 kilometer high. With these measurements it is possible to calculate the volume of the cluster, which amounts to about one billion cubic meters. And transferring that thought to water vapor, meteorologists calculate that it houses at least a thousand tons of water floating. Then they don’t seem so light anymore.
But when it comes to clouds, not all of them are the same, there are some from the smallest ones to those capable of causing a huge impact. Such is the case of cumulonimbus, the thickest clouds that on a stormy night can discharge up to 4 thousand tons of water per second on the Earth’s surface. In that case the weight becomes exponentially higher, some reaching up to a billion tons in weight.
Of course, the calculation is variable and depends on the dimensions of the clouds, so their weight varies greatly. However, these observations help us to get an idea of how much a cloud weighs and to discover that they are not as light as they appear.